The storm damaged buildings, uprooted trees and raised fears of flash floods and tornadoes.
An estimated 500,000 people across several states were without power by Saturday evening, according to outage tracker PowerOutage. Nearly 900,000 customers had lost electricity in the initial hours after the storm made landfall, according to BBC reports. Officials reported two deaths each in Florida and Alabama. A second storm-related death was reported in Barbour County after a motor vehicle crash involving a fallen tree, according to Josh Johnson of the state’s emergency management agency.
In Florida’s Escambia County, a woman was killed when a tree fell on her home, while a man died from carbon monoxide poisoning after a generator was operated in his garage, Sheriff Chip Simmons said. In Alabama, one person died when a tree fell on a house in Birmingham, Fire Chief Cory Moon said. Hurricane-force winds blew the roof off a hotel in Pensacola, while the city’s mayor said the airport “took some damage”.
The storm also caused scattered damage along Florida’s Gulf Coast. In Destin, a boathouse was flattened, and part of a high-rise building’s facade was torn away in Panama City Beach.
US President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Georgia after earlier approving similar measures for Florida and Alabama, allowing federal assistance to be provided.